“A lawsuit filed last week by five patients and the niece of one of the patients includes claims that Dick kissed and hugged them without consent, rubbed his genitals against their legs and groped their breasts. The alleged conduct took place from September 2016 to December 2017. According to the complaint, one used a phone to videotape the inappropriate contact.”
The above paragraph is from an article published June 3 on the Decatur Daily website. The full story can be found here.
Michael Dick insists to the press that he has “never in his life” assaulted any of his patients.
“A Decatur doctor says allegations in a civil lawsuit that he had inappropriate sexual contact with several female patients are “utterly false,” and he hopes the lawsuit will collapse when he is found innocent of related criminal charges.
“I have never harassed or assaulted any human being in my life, male or female, physically or sexually,” said Dr. Michael Dick of Alabama Medicine and Rheumatology. “Never in my life, as a doctor or before I was a doctor.”
Although, in light of the recent bravery exhibited by the six women we represent along with the bravery of the countless women involved with the #MeToo movement, it seems both foolhardy and egotistical to blindly dismiss the claims of numerous women over the blustering of one man.
Along with the six plaintiffs in the complaint filed last Wednesday, our firm as well as the two firms we are partnered with have received upwards of a dozen phone calls from women that have experienced nearly the exact same pattern of behavior from Dick as noted by our clients in their complaint.
Dick has admitted to the press that his attorney has advised him against speaking publicly. He claims that he has “over a hundred” patients that would be willing to testify to his being above-board, though he hasn’t asked any of these one hundred patients if they would be willing to speak to such a thing.
However, Dick even goes so far as to tell the Decatur Daily that he was investigated for a similar complaint when he was working at what is now Decatur General Hospital nearly ten years ago. He brushes this complaint off as though numerous women across ten years complaining about the same behavior is something that he finds normal, even trivial.
Along with these nameless patients, Dick also claims that one of his nurses will be willing to testify to his conduct. We wonder if this is one of the same nurses that stood silently by and watched as he groped women, put his hand down their pants, and kissed them on the mouth.
The experiences or complaints of these women are not trivial or normal in any way. They have been assaulted. These repeated patterns of assault by Dick have caused upheaval in the lives of our clients and the no-doubt countless other women that he has been in contact with over the course of his medical career.
Our clients have been brought to tears speaking of the ways that these actions by Dick have affected their relationships with their children, their husbands and boyfriends, and their families. They have been incredibly brave in bringing their stories into the public eye. They have done so in an effort to prevent this happening to any other women. Our main goal is to make sure this does not happen again, ever.
